ImagineNation News
Friendly competition The top team from the latest festive LightBox Expo challenge discuss the process behind their touching Christmas artwork
The Holly Jolly Paint-a-Thon, now in its seventh edition, has become an eagerly anticipated holiday tradition within the global art community.
Hosted on the LightBox Expo Discord server, this annual online art event challenges teams of 4-8 artists to a 24-hour creative marathon, with the aim of making one collaborative art piece following a mystery holidaythemed prompt revealed at kick-off. A team challenge at the heart of such a welcoming, supportive community ensures everyone has the opportunity to join in and contribute their unique talents to a group piece.
The prompt given for the 2023 instalment was ‘warm and cosy’, and had industry-leading artists Nathan Fowkes and Devin Elle Kurtz on hand with their expertise as guest judges. The Holly Jolly Paint-a-Thon is more than just a competition; it’s a muchloved holiday tradition that keeps growing every year and always brings many incredible experiences, results and stories that resonate well beyond the holiday season!
LightBox Expo 2024 is all set for 25-27 October. To find out the latest details for this year’s event as they’re revealed, head over to https://lightboxexpo.com.
TEAM CAPTAIN KUYA JAYPI SHARES THE GROUP’S PROGRESS
We spent the first six hours generating story ideas and creating concept drawings. Due to the different strengths of our team, we ended up with a wide variety of images that we could use to create the thumbnails.
We knew we wanted to illustrate a warm-hearted interaction between a little girl and a giant creature. We explored different options, and it was interesting to observe other teams choosing ideas we rejected.
Despite facing a tight deadline, and with around 50 teams participating, we enjoyed the process. It was satisfying to see our ideas materialise and to delve into small side stories that enriched the final artwork.
We decided on a snowman because we found the notion amusing and ironic; as a snow creature, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the hot chocolate. This choice highlighted the innocence of both characters.
Ultimately, making the Paint-a-Thon’s theme of ‘warm and cosy’ unmistakable from the very beginning was our main goal, and made up the primary focus planning out every aspect of our artwork.
Now it was time to create the layout. We decided to use Magma, which enabled us to draw a picture together in real-time in our browsers. All in all, we spent about four hours
